For many businesses, communication costs are eating up much of their profits. When you go to the phone company, asking for a business account automatically doubles your phone or internet bill. What these communication companies need to realize is that small businesses around the country are struggling and need help. If they won’t give it to them, they will find it on their own. Many times, that means dumping them and paying less for communication services.
In the Atlanta area, on average 1 business telephone line is apx. $100.00 plus taxes etc. If you work in an office where they may need 4 – 8 telephone lines, that would be a cost of $400-$800 dollars per month. For a small business, that is a lot of money and this does not include internet. Internet is another $100.00 per month.
Because of technology, small businesses have a chance to lower their communication costs up to 70%.
Internet
As a small business, you need a secure, fast and reliable internet connection. This is the base of you saving money on your communication costs.
Types of Internet Connections
DSL- (A Digital Subscriber Line) is issued by the telephone company. The father away from your providers hub the less reliable your internet connection will be. In major cities, this is usually not a problem. However, in areas will less population, you should check with your provider to see how far you are from their hub. The maximum distance from a hub to get reliable internet connection from your dsl provider is around 8000 feet.
DSL is a good option for offices or storefront retail locations that need internet and a few telephone lines. DSL comes in either ADSL (Asymmetric digital subscriber line) or the rarer SDSL (Symmetric digital subscriber line). With ADSL, it means your upload speed is lower than your download speed. With SDSL, upload and download speed are the same. ADSL costs less than SDSL.
SDSL is a cheaper alternative to T1 lines.
ADSL apx. costs (for businesses) From $49.00 – $199.00 per month – Depends on speed
SDSL apx. costs (for businesses) From $99.00 – $300.00 per month -Depends on speed
Cable Internet
Cable internet is starting to gain steam. It is internet service delivered through a cable company’s line. Sometimes called fiber optic internet service. Unlike DSL, the distance from your providers hub does not impact speed or quality of service. Speeds are 15x faster than DSL with around the same price,many times cheaper. Like DSL, cable internet’s upload speed is less than download speeds.
Cable Internet Cost (apx. $49.99 – $125.00) for really fast speeds.
T1 Internet Connection
A T1 internet connection is a dedicated internet connection from your provider to your place of business, with the exact same upload and download speed of 1.544 mbs. This speed is faster than residential internet service but slower than cable. For most business, this will be more than enough speed for what you need to do. Most T1 providers offer service guarantees. They promise a 99.9% availability for your internet service. If there is a problem, they will fix it immediately.
With a T1 line, it is broken up in 24 nodes therefore, your provider can split those nodes up. For example, you can have 24 voice calls at the same time, or 10 voice calls and 14 people on the internet. This internet connection is most used with a VOIP (voice over ip phone service). This is the connection most VOIP providers recommend when you are doing VOIP.
Secure, fast, service guarantee of availability.
T1 Pricing From $250.00 – $900.00 per month. This service usually has a 3 year contract, installation fees and cancellation fees. Your provider will install a professional router/modem in your place of business.
Good for small – medium sized businesses who have high internet use or want to use VOIP and have the need for multiple telephone lines and mission critical applications and cannot afford to ever be down.
Also good for those who do not have access to DSL, or Cable internet.
Now is when the savings come in. Once you have your internet connection, you can then add telephone lines that work through your internet connection. VOIP has come a long way and many businesses today are switching to VOIP to save money.
VOIP
VOIP (Voice over IP) means just that. Sending voice through your internet connection instead of an analog telephone line. Many different companies do VOIP. From Vonage to many smaller companies.
VOIP requires a high speed internet connection. Once you have that you can get connected with a VOIP company for your telephone calls.
Please see the VOIP article for additional information.
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